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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par